Mr. Giles Hodges of Exeter-college, were charged with preaching against Arminianism and the new ceremonies in their sermons at St Mary's. Hill made a public recantation, and was quickly released; but the very texts of the others (says Mr. Fuller*) gave offence: One preached on Numbers xiv. 4. Let us make us a captain, and let us return into Egypt: And another on 1 Kings xiii. 2. And he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord, and said, O altar, altar, &c. These divines, being convened before the vice-chancellor Dr. Smith, as offenders against the king's instructions, appealed from the vice-chancellor to the proctors, who received their appeal. Upon this the chancellor complained to the king, and procured the cause to be heard before his majesty at Woodstock, Aug. 23, when the following sentence was passed upon them: "That Mr. Ford, Thorne, and Hodges, be expelled the univer sity; that both the proctors be deprived of their places for accepting the appeal; and that Dr. Prideaux rector of Exeter-college, and Dr. Wilkinson principal of Mag'dalen-Hall, receive a sharp admonition for their misbehavior in this business." Mr. Thorne and Hodges, after a year's deprivation, desiring to be restored, preached a recantation sermon, and read a written submission in the convocation house on their bended knees, before the doctors and regents; but Mr. Ford, making no address to be restored, returned to his friends in Devonshire; and being like to be chosen lecturer or vicar of Plymouth, the inhabitants were required not to choose him, upon pain of his majesty's high displeasure; and in case he was chosen, the bishop of Exeter was commanded not to admit him. Mr. Crowder, vicar of Vell near Nonsuch, was about this time committed close prisoner to Newgate for sixteen weeks, and then deprived by the high commission, without any articles exhibited against him, or proof of a crime. It was pretended that matters against him were so foul, that they were not fit to be read in court; but then they ought to have been certified to him, that he might have had an opportunity to disprove or confess them, which could not he *Church Hist. b. xi. p. 141. ↑ Rushworth. vol. i. part ii. p. 110. Prynne, Cant. Doom. p. 175. obtained. Mr. Crowder was a pious man, and preached twice a day, which was an unpardonable crime so near the court. Sundry eminent divines removed to New-England this year; and among others the famous Dr. Elliot, the apostle of the Indians, who, not being allowed to teach school in his native country, retired to America, and spent a long and useful life in converting the natives, and with indefatigable pains translated the bible into the Indian language. Two very considerable puritan divines were also removed into the other world by death, viz. Mr. Arthur Hildersham, born at Stechworth, Cambridgeshire, Oct. 6th, 1563, and educated in Christ's-college, Cambridge, of an ancient and honorable family; his mother Anne Poole being neice to the cardinal of that name. His father educated him in the popish religion; and, because he would not go to Rome at fourteen or fifteen years of age, disinherited him: but the earl of Huntingdon, his near kinsman, provided for him, sending him to Cambridge, where he proceeded M. A. and entered into holy orders. In the year 1587, he was placed by his honorable kinsman abovementioned, at Ashbyde-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, and inducted into that living soon after. But here he was silenced for non-conformity, as in the year 1590, in the year 1605, and again in the year 1611,under which last suspension he continued many years. In the year 1613, he was enjoined by the high commission not to preach, or exercise any part of the ministerial function, till he should be restored. In the year 1615, he was committed to the Fleet by the high commission, for refusing the oath ex officio, where he continued three months, and was then released upon bond. In November 1616, the high commission proceeded against him, and pronounced him refractory and disobedient to the orders, rites and ceremonies of the church; and because he refused to conform, declared him a schismatic, fined him two thousand pounds, excommunicated him, and ordered him to be attached and committed to prison, that he might be degraded of his ministry: but Mr. Hildersham wisely absconded, and kept out of the way. In the year 1625, he was restored to his liv * Clarke's Life of Hildersham, annexed to his GENERAL MARTYROLOGY, p. 114. - ing; but when Laud had the ascendant, he was silenced again for not reading divine service in the surplice and hood, and was not restored till a few months before his death.Though he was a non-conformist in principle, as appears by his last will and testament, yet he was a person of great temper and moderation :* he loved and respected all good men, and opposed the separation of the Brownists, and the semi-separation of Mr. Jacob. His lectures on the 51st psalm, and his other printed works, as well as the encomiums of Dr. Willet and Dr. Preston, shew him to have been a most excellent divine: What a pity was it that his usefulness in the church should be so long interrupted! He died March 4, 1631, in the sixty-ninth year of his age, having been minister of Ashby-de-la-Zouch (as the times would suffer him) above forty-three years. Mr. Robert Bolton, was born at Blackburn in Lancashire, 1572, educated first in Lincoln-college, and afterwards in Brazen-nose college, Oxford, of which he was fellow.Here he became famous for his lectures in moral and natural philosophy, being an excellent Grecian,† and well versed in school divinity, while he continued a profane wicked man, During his residence at college, he contracted an acquaintance with one Anderton a popish priest, who, taking advantage of his mean circumstances, would have persuaded him to reconcile himself to the church of Rome, and go over to one of the English seminaries in Flanders. Mr. Bolton accepted the motion, and appointed a place of meeting to conclude the affair: but Anderton disappointing him, he returned to college, and fell under strong convictions for his former misspent life; so that he could neither eat nor sleep, or enjoy any peace of mind for several months ; till at length, by prayer and humiliation, he received comfort. Upon this, he resolved to enter upon the ministry, in the thirty-fifth year of his age. About two years after he was presented to the living of Broughton in Northamptonshire, where he continued till his death.He "He dissented not from the church in any article of faith, but only about wearing the surplice, baptising with the cross, and kneeling at the sacrament." Granger's History of England,vol i. p. 371. 8vo. Ed. †The Greek language was so familiar to him, that he could speak it with almost as much facility as his mother tongue. Ed. was a most awakening and authoritative preacher, having the most strong, masculine and oratorical stile of any of the age in which he lived. He preached twice every Lord's day, besides catechising. Upon every holy day, and every Friday, before the sacrament, he expounded a chapter: His constant course was to pray six times a day, twice in secret, twice with his family, and twice with his wife, besides many days of private humiliation that he observed for the protestant churches in Germany. He was of a comely grave presence, which commanded respect in all companies; zealous in the cause of religion, and yet so prudent as to escape being called in question all the time he lived in Northamptonshire. At length he was seized with a tertian ague, which, after fifteen weeks, put a period to his valuable and useful life, December 17, 1631, in the sixtieth year of his age. He made a most devout and exemplary end, praying heartily for all his friends that came to see him; bidding them make sure of heaven, and bear in mind what he had formerly told them in his ministry, protesting that what he had preached to them for twenty years, was the truth of God, as he should answer it at the tribunal of Christ. He then retired within himself, and said, Hold out fuith and patience, your work will speedily be at an end. The Oxford historian* calls him a most religious and learned puritan, a painful and constant preacher, a person of great zeal towards God, charitable and bounti ful; but above all, an excellent casuist for afflicted consciences: His eloquent and excellent writings will recommend his memory to latest posterity.† About the year 1627, there was a scheme formed by several gentlemen and ministers to promote preaching in the country, by setting up lectures in the several market-towns of England; and to defray the expense, a sum of money was raised by voluntary contribution, for the purchasing such * Athenæ Oxon, vol. i. p. 479; see also Fuller's Abel Redivivus, p. 586. + When he lay at the point of death, one of his friends, taking him by the hand, asked him if he was not in great pain: "Truly," said he, "the greatest pain I feel is your cold hand;" and presently expired. His book "on Happiness" was the most celebrated of his works, and has gone through many editions.Granger's History of England, vol. i. p. 365, 8vo. ; and Fuller's Abel Redivivus, p. 594. Ed. impropriations as were in the hands of the laity, the profits of which were to be parcelled out in salaries of forty or fifty pounds per ann. for the subsistence of their lecturers; the money was deposited in the hands of the following ministers and gentlemen, in trust for the aforesaid purposes, under the name and character of feoffees, viz. Dr. William Gouge, Dr. Sibbs, Dr. Offspring, and Mr. Davenport, of the clergy; Ralph Eyre and Simon Brown, Esqrs. of Lincoln'siun, and C.Sherman, of Gray's-inn, and John White, of the Middle-Temple, Esqrs. lawyers; Mr. John Gearing, Mr. Richard Davis, Mr. G. Harwood, and Mr. Francis Bridges, citizens of London. There were at this time three thousand eight hundred and forty-five parish churches appropriated to cathedrals, or to colleges, or impropriated as lay fees to private persons, having formerly belonged to abbies. The gentlemen abovementioned dealt only in the latter, and had already bought in thirteen impropriations, which cost between five and six thousand pounds. Most people thought this a very laudable design, and wished the feoffees good success; but bishop Laud looked on them with an evil eye, and represented them to the king as in a conspiracy against the church, because, instead of restoring the impropriations they purchased to the several livings, they kept them in their own hands for the encouragement of factious and seditions lecturers, who were to depend upon their patrons, as being liable to be turned out if they neglected their duty.* He added further, that the feoffees preferred chiefly nonconformist ministers, and placed them in the most popular market-towns, where they did a great deal of mischief to the hierarchy. For these reasons an information was brought against them in the Exchequer by Mr. AttorneyGeneral Noy, as an illicit society, formed into a body corporate, without a grant from the king, for the purchasing rectories, tithes, prebendaries, &c. which were registered in a book, and the profits not employed according to law. The defendants appeared, and in their answer declared, that they apprehended impropriations in the hands of laymen, and not employed for the maintenance of preachers, * Fuller's Church History, b. xi. p. 136. Appeal, p. 13. Prynne, p. 379, 385. Rushworth, vol. i. part 2d, p. 150. |